


Light Through a Prism

by quartetship



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Anthology, Inspired by Poetry, M/M, Rating Change, Sexual Content, Synesthesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2019-05-27 05:11:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15017351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quartetship/pseuds/quartetship
Summary: Shades of Keith and Lance, through one another's eyes.





	1. Red

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter is essentially a standalone story, all set in the same continuum. Feel free to read one, a few, or all of them - and lease let me know what you think! 
> 
> \--

Piloting the red lion still somehow felt new to Lance.

Despite the fact that he’d probably logged more days in her cockpit than he had sat in Blue's, he still constantly felt in awe of what Red could do. She was a rose in constant bloom, each petal falling away to reveal a more beautiful one beneath it.

He smiled as he curled tired fingers around the controls. Red reminded him so much of Keith. It wasn’t just because Keith was still the red paladin; he would probably never stop feeling like Red’s proper pilot, in Lance’s mind. It was their shared ability to constantly surprise him, the way that - no matter how long he was near either of them - he never seemed to have either figured out completely.

At Keith’s command, they brought the lions in for a landing on the small planet they were borrowing for the night. They were in the process of returning to earth and despite the speed of the lions, it was far more than a simple overnight trip. It didn’t bother him, though; there was part of him that was truly enjoying watching the others prepare to return home, seeing their building excitement and anticipation as it mirrored his own.

Keith, though - Lance couldn’t decipher his feelings. He was determined, focused to get them back to their home planet. But unlike the rest of them, Keith had found all that was left of his own family amongst the stars and was bringing all of them back with him instead of preparing to be reunited with them.

Lance stood by, stood back when he needed to, and allowed Keith to cycle through his emotions in silence as they grew closer every day to their home. He would open up to Lance when he was ready, a flower blooming at the perfect moment. Lance wouldn’t risk pushing the petals apart before they were prepared to part and damage all that Keith had built.

He loved him far too much to push him.

—

Lance didn’t have to wait long. He knew much had changed in Keith when they had seen each other again that first night, but he was constantly surprised by just how much growing his partner had done. When they landed their lions and began to set up camp for the evening, it was Keith that sought him out and took his hand in front of the others.

To their credit, no one seemed surprised. Perhaps it was because Keith had been so open about his emotions in the days leading up to that evening. Maybe they had all known more than they let on - and for longer than Lance knew. It could have even been that they didn’t notice, though Lance couldn’t imagine how. The warmth of Keith’s hand in his - even through gloves - was something he could feel down to his toes.

That night, Hunk and Pidge created something that resembled a bonfire. It didn’t flicker like a flame, exactly; Lance figured there was some kind of space science that prevented that. But it glowed, warm and bright and red, keeping all of them warm as they settled around it to eat and talk.

Keith was visibly tired. All of them were. Though the look of exhaustion on his face made Lance want to reach out and take hold of him, he hesitated. This bloom was near enough that he could enjoy it without pulling the flower from its roots. But then Keith took a seat beside Lance, so close that their thighs bumped against each other as Keith relaxed in place. He leaned just enough that the side of his head came to rest on Lance’s shoulder. Lance could barely contain the soft, surprised gasp that escaped him, but then Keith’s hand was on his and it was exceedingly obvious that the others could see them.

The warmth of the faux fire lit his friends’ faces as they looked Lance’s way. Only when he saw every eye on him did he realize it was because Keith’s had fluttered closed and he was resting, carefree against Lance’s side. It was a beautiful sight, Keith without the usual lines of apprehension tightening his features, face lit by the mechanical glow before them and a happy satisfaction seemingly radiating from within. His long hair blew in the gentle wind of the alien planet as he breathed a sigh.

He was smiling.

Lance returned his gaze to the others, but they had returned to what they were doing. This sight - Keith, drifting off to sleep without worry on Lance’s shoulder - was one they had left just for him to enjoy. He lingered in it, looking down at Keith for as long as he could, vowing to remember every beautiful inch of that expression for the rest of his life.

In the red light, Keith showed him yet another layer of the rose that wrapped his heart. Lance bent down to press a chaste kiss against that soft face, breathing a laugh when Keith wriggled against him and went right back to sleep.

Lance could never hope to figure Keith out completely. But then again, Lance had always loved surprises.


	2. Orange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything changes when he meets Lance...

Keith has always had an ability to sense color.

He realizes it is different when he is still a child, telling his dad that something feels blue, rather than soft. He becomes aware that it is something others might not understand when he is a teenager, when death, fear and upheaval leave him leaking inky, black feelings everywhere he goes. He is saved from hating it about himself when he meets Shiro, and he feels for the first time the warmth of the sun’s yellow rays surrounding him in a familiar embrace.

Then, everything he is and everything he knows changes when he meets Lance.

Most people give Keith a single, colorful feeling. It’s a fragrance of zesty, lime green that rolls off of Coran or the floaty, periwinkle feeling of being in Allura’s presence. No matter the situation, it is always the same. Each person feels a certain, single way; that predictability is a grounding sense of consistency in a world that gives Keith little other comfort.

But then Lance comes along.

When Keith first notices him, Lance is little more than a fiery burst of orange in his peripheral vision. Like a lighter, lit and then extinguished without Keith giving him a second thought. The night they begin the insanity of their Voltron journey, Lance surprises Keith for the first time by _smelling_ like the now bonfire-sized blaze he radiates.

It’s strangely comforting, though Keith is too distracted to appreciate it. He chalks it up to Lance rolling around in the desert sand and sweating in the heat.

The longer they know each other, though, the less Keith can deny that Lance is an experience, all his own.

The first time he smiles at Keith - warm and real - Keith feels his senses flood with warmth. There is an orange glow all around Lance, and for the first time its light isn’t blinding. The pleasant, soft light of a candle is all that Keith can hope to compare it to.

As the team’s dynamic grows and changes, so does Keith’s sense of Lance. While Pidge remains a vibrant scent of lemons and Hunk always feels like a warm, freshly-laundered blanket, Lance is always something different. One day he might smell like cinnamon-sweetened pumpkins, the next he might glow with all the colors of autumnal leaves. The only consistency he offers is a reminder of home, and a feeling of fondness that Keith tries desperately to ignore.

It’s all over for him, though, the night that Lance kisses him. Keith is leaving soon, and everyone on the team busies themselves in giving him a fond farewell. Even through tears and the emotions that fall with them, the other paladins and their alien friends continue to give Keith the same feeling that they always have. But when Lance pulls him aside that night before they are to go their separate ways, he smells like sun-ripened oranges.

Keith suddenly can’t think of anything that sounds more delicious.

“Don’t die or anything, while you’re out there,” Lance asks of him, and though his voice is small, it is impossibly warm. He drops it like a match to the ground as he leans in close and adds, “Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Then the flame that is Lance’s presence bursts around them full force as he presses his lips to Keith’s, hurried and almost frantic. It’s chaste and over too quickly - like he was ready to run before he started - so Keith takes the chance he’s been offered and grabs Lance by the collar to pull him close again.

This time, Lance isn’t shy. When Keith brings their mouths together again Lance takes control, parting his lips with a painfully perfect grace that leaves Keith sighing against them. He tastes sweeter than Keith could have imagined, like oranges and apricots, like every little clementine he’d ever stolen from a fruit basket growing up.

When they part that night, Keith can’t help wondering how long it will be before he can taste those lips again.

—

The answer to Keith’s question is: far too long.

They’re apart for ages - years, by Keith’s estimation - though Lance doesn’t see it quite the same. It’s okay, though; when Keith returns and the dust of their urgent business settles, he returns to Lance’s presence in private to see if Lance’s sweetness is still something he can indulge in.

What Lance gives him is entirely new, though. The same sweet kisses are showered upon every inch of Keith’s skin that Lance can reach, but a new tartness accompanies them. Like a freshly-peeled tangerine, the scent and flavor come bursting into his consciousness as Lance barely allows him a moment to breathe between kisses. Relenting, Keith is glad to let himself drown in the moment.

Butterflies burst to life in his stomach, fluttering up to his chest and rioting where his heart had once been. Like monarchs on a journey, they are unrelenting, and Keith is powerless to fight the giddiness that wells up in him as Lance holds him close.

“Missed you so much, you jerk,” Lance hisses, though his voice is thick and sweet like syrup. Keith can’t help but nod, to return the sentiment without saying a word as he guides Lance’s lips to his again and tastes that nectar-sweet mouth that he’s suffered so long without.

Keith realizes that night that he never wants to go without Lance’s lips for so long again. He tells Lance so, and the grin that spreads across Lance’s face is like the breaking dawn. He’s still smiling that way when he hovers above Keith in his makeshift bed, talking of taking Keith back home to earth and taking him out on an honest-to-God date. After so long without Lance’s warmth, Keith welcomes the sunrise as Lance’s brightness pours over him.

—

The first earthly sunset Keith sees after they return is underwhelming, but he wonders if that isn’t because he’s sitting beside Lance. Lance himself is like a sky full of clouds, painted in blazing shades of blood orange as the sun dips behind them to make way for a warm, summer night. The fireflies that dot the sky seem to climb ever upward until they’re twinkling with the stars, stars both Keith and Lance have now been beyond.

It feels strange to be home, but only because Keith truly feels it for once in his life. Since his childhood, he hasn’t felt the embrace of home in any person or place, though Shiro gave him the closest thing he had ever had in recent memory. Now, Shiro, the paladins, the Alteans and even his real mother are surrounding him, giving him the family he never dreamed he’d find.

And Lance is by his side, at dawn’s first light and evening’s final bow.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Lance asks him, the first night they share, away from all the others. It’s probably the fifth time Lance has inquired on the same subject, and if Keith wasn’t so wrapped up in how good Lance is making him feel he would probably grumble about having to answer him again and again. Instead, he pulls Lance down from where he hovers above him, drinking in the sweetness that radiates from his boyfriend.

They decided on that word just days before, and now it feels more appropriate than ever, as Lance lets hands roam across the expanse of Keith’s bare chest, his shoulders to his hips, and lower still when Keith’s breath hitches.

Keith nods for the sixth time when Lance asks him just once more before beginning careful ministrations of his entrance. He wants to make this good for both of them; they’ve waited so long to be home and be able to have this moment together. But Keith realizes in that shared stretch of time that his perfect, beautiful, entirely unpredictable and all-the-more wonderful _boyfriend_ has absolutely no idea just how good everything he does for Keith is.

“I love you,” Lance whispers before he parts Keith’s legs and settles properly between them. Keith has no word for the way he feels, then, with the heat from his body stretching to accommodate Lance’s causing his stomach to coil in the best possible way. He has no idea how he’ll ever get enough of this feeling, but he doesn’t want to worry about the logistics of it for now.

Instead, he loops arms around Lance’s neck and breathes his reply into the slight softness of his shoulder. “I love you, too.”

The rhythm of it is slow, at first. Keith struggles to adjust, and Lance is careful with him. They take their time, though their bodies are more than eager for the contact they’ve both been starving for. Lance takes note of everything that pleases Keith, every way he likes to be touched and held and handled. He patches those things together like a quilt and wraps Keith in it.

By the time his release is building low in his stomach, Keith is panting praises that are as fiery warm as the feeling Lance has ignited within him.

“Don’t hold out on me, baby,” is all Lance says, and suddenly Keith is tipped over the edge. His legs shake as he lets go, but Lance is there to catch him, to hold him through it. He joins Keith a moment later, and the feeling of warmth migrates from between Keith’s legs to his chest and cheeks as he is overcome with the need to hold his boyfriend close.

The moment feels surreal, one entirely out of time. They’ve journeyed across the universe and back, all together - all to end up where they are, right now. Keith has always heard post-coital cuddling referred to as “the afterglow”, and with Lance beside him, he finally realizes why.

When they finally sleep that night, Keith can feel Lance fading from wakefulness beside him. It’s nothing to mourn; his lover has given him the perfect day, just another in a life they’re building that suits both of them just fine. Instead, Lance drifting off to sleep beside him is a sunset over still, placid water.

Keith presses an artless kiss to his shoulder and smiles when Lance hums happily in his sleep, before joining him there.

\--


	3. Yellow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Your laugh is my favorite."

Keith’s laughter was far too infrequent.

As Lance had come to know him, he assumed Keith’s stoic nature came from a life of pushing others away for his own safety.

But there was a hidden warmth behind that facade. There was joy, tucked away for rare occasions when Keith felt comfortable enough to share it with others. Then and only then did he bless Lance with the sound of his laughter.

When Keith did laugh, it came in two distinct flavors. The first was sour, catching Lance off guard and wounding his pride. Little remarks made out of spite and tossed out as taunts made him want to snap back with something even harsher. Lance’s own responses tasted like lemon on his tongue, sharp and just as bitter as the way Keith’s haughty little chuckle always made him feel.

That particular flavor became less and less common, the longer they knew one another, though. Since they had started kissing more than fighting, the bickering that remained was more often a prelude to something far more _appetizing._

The other side of Keith’s laughter was the one that Lance treasured. There was a secret sweetness that Keith kept hidden inside himself, and it bubbled out whenever he laughed. Lance was so addicted to that flavor, he made it his mission every day to hear the unbridled laughter Keith liked to keep to himself.

There had been a time when that was a tall order. Back on earth with more family than he’d ever had at once and surrounded by friends, though, Keith was more liberal with his laughter. And Lance drank up every drop.

“Love the way you laugh,” he whispered into the crook of Keith’s neck and shoulder one evening as they stood surrounded by the others. The novelty of holding and touching Keith with an audience should have long since worn off by then, but Lance still felt like pinching himself sometimes that Keith allowed it. That night they were all tired, training and enduring meetings with government officials for hours on end. Standing around with their little space family outside the Holt home, Lance clung to his boyfriend for all the world to see and mumbled praise into his skin.

“I’d accuse you of being drunk but I’m pretty sure Mrs. Holt didn’t spike the tea,” Keith said, still a hint of laughter in his voice. Lance squeezed his waist and chased the sound like a fleeting taste of sugar, leaning harder into Keith.

“M’serious,” Lance all but whined. “Your laugh is my favorite.”

This time, Keith leaned forward to touch his lips to Lance’s forehead. Lance looked up at him, only to find Keith giving him the smile that forewarned him that his sweet talk was _definitely doing things_ for his boyfriend. The faintest blush rose across Keith’s nose and cheeks as he whispered, “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Lance replied, licking his lips like a man dying of thirst. Just to prove his point, of course. “It’s like… It’s like honey. Makes me wanna taste your mouth.”

At that, Keith audibly swallowed. Lance could hear the shaky exhale he breathed as he tried to pretend Lance hadn’t just flipped his switch in front of everyone they knew. The way Keith shifted to pull Lance fully in front of him probably only made that more obvious, but Lance certainly wasn’t complaining.

Clearing his throat, Keith waved to catch the others’ attention. “I think we’re gonna head back for the night. We’ll meet you guys here in the morning, yeah?”

Everyone nodded pleasantly, save for Pidge and her brother whispering and subsequently cracking up about something. Lance would deal with those two another time. Whatever they were saying probably wasn’t untrue, anyway.

He and Keith did indeed head back to the makeshift team Voltron home base from there, though they might have made a few very short stops so Lance could whisper more sugary words into Keith’s ear - and collect the resulting heated kisses.

By the time they made it back to the little bunk room they were unofficially sharing, Lance was shedding clothing and Keith was all but panting from his praise.

“Why you gotta say that kinda stuff in front of everybody?!” he demanded, though there was no force behind his words. He backed Lance against a wall, dropping kisses haphazardly over whatever skin he could find. “You want me to die?”

Lance grinned. “Not unless it’s from me sittin’ on your—”

“Hush,” Keith said, smashing a hand against Lance’s lips. “Less talking, more…” Keith trailed off, watching as Lance opened his mouth against his fingers and trailed his tongue over and between them. “Y-Yeah… That.”

Lance was happy to oblige, kissing his way over Keith’s entire hand and slowly up his arm. Keith melted, sighing Lance’s name like it was coming from somewhere deep in his chest. Lance chuckled against Keith’s skin, and suddenly the mood was broken as Keith broke into a bright, beautiful laugh at the feeling of being tickled.

Lance nearly swooned on the spot.

_“God,_ I love that sound,” he laughed too, unable to help himself. Though Keith was still smiling from it, he pushed Lance away teasingly, rolling his eyes.

“You don’t mean that.”

It was meant to be playful, but for some reason his dismissal hit Lance right in the chest. He lost all look of laughter, looking back at Keith with wide, earnest eyes.

“Yes I do,” he said. “I mean every word. Every time.”

There was a moment of pause as Keith watched his expression, as if he were waiting for a punchline. When Lance offered none, Keith swallowed and withdrew slightly from his space.

“I just… Why, though? I don’t know why. It’s just a laugh. Everybody has one.” He rambled for a moment and Lance simply blinked in response, not understanding where Keith was going with all of it until he finally asked, “Is mine weird, or something?”

Lance’s eyes went wider still. “Weird?” he parroted, “Weird?! Keith your laugh is… Weird is not the word.”

“Well, then what is it?” Keith asked, arms crossing over his chest. Lance could see from his stance that he was ready to argue, and that was the last thing he wanted. He just wanted to hear that pretty laugh again, to see Keith happy and radiating that guarded sweetness.

So he told him as much.

“When you laugh - I mean like… _really_ laugh - you’re so… _God,_ you’re beautiful, Keith.” Lance watched as Keith’s expression softened. He could probably stop there, but there was so much more that made him adore Keith’s beautiful, musical laugh and damn it, Keith needed to know about all of it. “You don’t laugh very often. But when you do, it’s so sweet. Like I said earlier, it’s like honey. It’s sweet and somehow sexy at the same time. Like, I wanna be covered in it.”

Keith’s breath hitched slightly, and he moved closer to Lance again. When Lance reached out to put hands on his waist, he didn’t protest. He just listened as Lance grinned and kept talking.

“You used to remind me of lemons or something. Like… Sour, but I knew if I could just get to know you I might be able to make lemonade with you.” He waggled his eyebrows, and that was enough to break the tension again, and Keith couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

“So, no lemonade?” Lance asked, pretending to pout. Keith looped an arm around Lance’s neck, wiping his watering eyes with the other hand. He then brought it to Lance’s cheek and held his face as he pressed a kiss to his lips. They only made it about three seconds before Keith was laughing again, right against Lance’s lips this time.

Lance had never tasted anything sweeter.


	4. Green

Growing up, Keith had seen far less green than most people.

Everything that surrounded Keith in his youth bore drab shades of earthy grey and woody brown. It wasn’t so bad; those colors went on to remind him of home and the fleeting moments of stability his life had once had. There was nothing wrong with brown.

But green had always caught his interest.

Dusty, green desert foliage had been the accents that broke up the monotony of his younger years. He marveled at the way that these plants could be so tough at their surface and yet so soft beneath, filled with water despite the oppressive heat they thrived in. He came to liken himself to the cacti and other rugged plants he grew up seeing, to sturdy things that kept their softness hidden from those who weren’t willing to work for it.

Shiro had taught him how to reveal layers of the person he was beneath that outer shell, taught him to trust and to love unconditionally - the way a family is supposed to. Still, the barbs that Shiro had patiently worked through were still numerous; Keith accepted the other paladins and the Alteans over time, with Shiro’s help.

Lance was something different, though. Something far more difficult for Keith, far more frightening. Lance seemed to wriggle past his defenses so effortlessly, and as soon as Keith had let his guard down, Lance went straight for his tender heart.

If Keith was a steadfast, stubborn desert cactus, Lance was a lush, tropical sort of thing. He seemed to thrive in harsh conditions of his own and though they may not have been the same as the raw start in life that Keith had endured, they had certainly made of Lance a resilient young man. Unlike Keith, though, Lance was flexible, like a palm blowing in tropical winds. He wore his bold, brilliant green on the outside for everyone to see. The same heat that had brought stress and strife to Keith’s existence seemed to only bathe Lance in flattering, familiar light that helped him grow into a better and more beautiful version of himself right before Keith’s eyes.

Yeah. Suffice it to say Keith had grown pretty damned fond of the guy.

Lance had somehow managed to bring out a softness that even Keith didn’t know he had within him. When they were together, Keith’s entire being seemed to change. He was covered in blankets of clover as they did senseless things like running through earthly fields together, the plants there bright and vivid and soft, all at once. He was wrapped in plush, green velvet, in blankets that dripped from Lance’s shoulders and surrounded him in a way that was all at once innocently sensual and maddeningly erotic.

Being at Lance’s side brought out shades of Keith that he had never seen in himself before, and never was that truer than when they were alone together, with nothing on but soft, muted lights.

“God, you’re so beautiful,” Lance breathed against Keith’s heated skin. The way he moved his hands over Keith’s body - like he was worshiping whatever god had thought to put Keith together - made Keith’s pulse pick up like nothing had before.

They spent most of their time this way in the evenings since they had acquired their own tiny space there on earth. As soon as the sun went down, Lance always found his way to Keith’s lap or snaked his arms around Keith’s waist, and Keith was not at all interested in stopping him.

Something about their intimacy there on earth felt so much more alive than any stolen moments they had shared in space. They were home. Together. In love and blissfully, beautifully aware of it.

Keith savored every moment.

“Wanna look at you like this for hours,” Lance murmured, beautiful nonsense falling from his lips as he reached for every inch of Keith’s pale body he could touch. Fingertips ghosted over Keith’s chest, his stomach, his hips, before finally circling his length as Lance nearly purred with satisfaction. “Gorgeous.”

Keith swallowed. He was spread out over Lance’s rumpled, velveteen blankets, on full display. The little rooms they all had in the small, makeshift base would be grandiose, one day. Coran assured them. But for the time being, they shared a small, dimly-lit room by night, and Keith felt as if he was sprawling across most of it as Lance crawled over his splayed body.

“You gonna do something about it, or not?” Keith asked him, mostly just anxious to do so himself. Lance laughed, a sound that shouldn’t have made Keith as hard as it did, but everything about Lance’s attention when they were like this made him stand tall.

In every sense.

For his part, Lance seemed to be in no hurry. He lazily straddled Keith’s bare hips, seeming to enjoy the way Keith’s hardness rested along the cleft of his ass. “No rush, beautiful. Like I said…” He dragged blunt nails down Keith’s thighs, just enough to leave Keith hissing through clenched teeth. “Could look at you like this for hours.”

Finally, Keith’s resolve snapped. Lance writhing playfully in his lap only served to remind him of how differently they were wired - and how much Lance enjoyed this kind of cat-and-mouse game of making Keith desperate for him.

“I don’t wanna wait hours,” Keith growled, grabbing Lance by the hips. His fingertips pressed into soft flesh, eliciting a gorgeous gasp from Lance as he shivered at Keith’s sudden dominance.

This wasn’t how things usually went. On most nights, Keith would let Lance tease and taunt him, drag his tongue and lips all over his length and everywhere else he wanted before finally taking what he really needed. But on this night, Keith needed things, himself. And Lance seemed more than okay with letting him have them.

Lance all but fell forward, hands smacking hard against the wall and window of their tiny room. The glass was green, made from salvage pieces Coran had kept on hand; in the dim evening light, it cast a sensual, emerald glow across Lance’s dark skin, brighter as his fingers trailed down the surface and the fog of their combined breath fell away.

“Want you right now,” Keith continued. He forgot himself when they were alone like this; all attempts at poetry and romance overturned with the need to get his point across. Lance’s breath hitched anyway; he circled his hips, grinding back against Keith’s hardness as he nodded.

“You can have me.”

Keith didn’t wait for any further ceremony. He let Lance brace himself against the fogged-up window once more, slapping blindly along the bed beside them until he found the lubricant. They didn’t even bother putting it away, anymore. This happened far too often.

Or just often enough, as far as Keith was concerned.

“Yes,” Lance hissed, as Keith slid cupped fingers beneath one of his tense thighs and lifted. Lance’s whole body rose with the action, enough that Keith could line himself up with his entrance. The slickness of smeared lube made Lance’s first try a failure, but he laughed like it didn’t matter. Leaning all of his weight forward into Keith’s steady grip, Lance pressed a giggly kiss to his lips before finally sinking down onto his length.

“Yessss,” he repeated, and Keith couldn’t help but echo him. It took a moment for Lance’s body to adjust, but once he had, he sat back with all the satisfaction of a cat and looked down at Keith with twice the smugness.

Glowing in the muted, green light of their small, shared room, he was the most incredible thing Keith had ever seen.

“Mmm, whatcha thinkin’ about, babe?” Lance asked, his breathless voice teasing despite their position. Keith sank fingers into his hips and rolled his own up to meet Lance’s tight heat.

“Thinkin’ about you,” he said honestly, drunk on the moment and the way Lance sighed his name. “About how good you look. About how you…” Keith lost his breath for a moment, catching sight of Lance’s blissful expression as he threw his head back and moaned Keith’s name. Lance’s hands fumbled along Keith’s shoulders, one open palm sliding over Keith’s face as he tried to hang onto something. Keith dragged artless, open-mouthed kisses across his hand.

“You always say I look good. But, god, _Lance_ \- you’re - you look _amazing.”_

Lance collapsed forward, then, allowing Keith to grind up into him as he held on for dear life. Barely a heartbeat had passed before Keith took hold of him by the waist and flipped them over in a single, smooth move. Lance sobbed with pleasure as Keith drove into him at an even more maddening pace.

“You’re perfect,” Keith said, kissing Lance’s ankle as he laid it over his shoulder. Lance let himself go, let Keith pound him into their squeaky, little bed. Plush, green blankets were curled in his fists, fabric that looked almost black in the dim light. It only served to make Lance’s beautiful, glowing body more breathtaking.

“Can’t believe I even get to _look_ at you,” Keith breathed, his words barely making it out into the air between them. “Much less this. Much less- _ah, Lance,_ baby- _fuck!”_

There were few times when Keith allowed himself the luxury of pet-naming his boyfriend, but in that moment he would have called him any sweet thing he thought Lance might like. In that moment - as Lance’s body tightened around him and their combined breath made the windows sweat along with them - Keith had never known a person he wanted to please more than the gorgeous boy beneath him.

Lance whimpered, grabbing for Keith’s shaking arms. “Keith. _Keith,_ I’m _gnhh.._ ‘m almost…”

“Show me,” Keith said simply and stepped up his efforts, all but slamming into Lance’s heat. The tightness peaked and so did Lance, going still and tipping his head back with a wrecked little sob as he came. Keith’s release followed a moment later, with Lance still taking him enthusiastically and sighing his name like a skipping recording.

When finally Keith let himself fall atop his boyfriend, they were both devoid of breath and shaking. Lance pressed lazy kisses wherever he could reach; Keith tipped his head up to make sure at least one of them landed on his lips.

“God, that was good,” Lance sighed against Keith’s mouth. He tasted like spearmint and green tea and absolute perfection.

_“You_ were good,” Keith replied. Lance chuckled and gathered Keith against him, breathing deep.

“You sure do make me feel that way,” he replied. He pressed a kiss to the top of Keith’s head. Keith smiled, slow and satisfied as their breathing slowed in unison.

“Good. Consider it payback.”


	5. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Always."

\--

The thing about the love Keith shared with Lance that terrified him wasn’t how quickly it had come to be, nor how startlingly deep it had grown. In the days that lead up to the final battle for peace, it was the fragility, the tenderness of that love that frightened Keith the most. 

“You won’t stay?” Lance asked one evening, his hand trailing up Keith’s bare chest. His eyes were wide, devastatingly beautiful in their deep blue as he watched Keith for his answer. 

Keith sighed. 

“You know I can’t. As soon as we get all of this taken care of, I have loose ends to tie up with the Blade.” He took Lance’s hand and kissed the back of his fingers. “I won’t be gone forever.” 

“You don’t know that, though,” Lance protested, and Keith could sense the sad, blue feelings rolling off of him. “The universe is huge. We both know that. You never know what you’re gonna run into out there. And I…” He took his hand back and pulled himself in close to Keith’s chest, tucking the top of his head beneath Keith’s chin where they lay on their shared bed. “We won’t be together this time for me to come find you.”

“Hey,” Keith interrupted, careful not to let Lance’s mind wander too far into the depths of those dark, blue thoughts. He tipped Lance’s chin up to meet his gaze. “You always did manage to come find me when I needed it, though. I’m sure that if I got lost out there somewhere with the Blade, it wouldn’t be long before you and Red would be right there. She would haul your ass out into the depths of space to bring me home and then you could lecture me the whole way.”

“You bet your ass I would,” Lance huffed, though his voice was still weaker than Keith liked to hear it. “Me and Red both. After I got done sucking your—”

“Not in Red’s cockpit!” Keith hissed, smacking Lance’s arm. Lance finally grinned, burying his face against Keith’s skin and laughing. 

“You go ‘lost in space’ on me, and I’ll suck your dick wherever I damn well please when I find you again, sir.” 

Unable to argue with that - and trying to ignore the way Lance’s words were causing his body to react in the present - Keith hauled Lance up to lie beside him, face to face. “Duly noted, baby.” 

At that, Lance went still for a moment, blinking back at Keith, blue eyes wide with something akin to wonder. 

“What?” Keith asked, his voice low. Lance blinked a few more times, like he was trying to wake himself from a daydream before finally deciding he wasn't dreaming at all. 

“Nothing. You just… You never call me that. ‘Baby’, and stuff like that. Usually.”

It was Keith’s turn to go wide-eyed, having hardly noticed he had pet-named his boyfriend. It was true that he saved those kinds of words for rare moments of passion and praise between them. But something about this quiet evening - with rain outside their window and Lance sprawled beside him in nothing but an unbuttoned pair of faded blue jeans - felt as intimate as anything between them ever had. 

Keith grinned, shrugging a single shoulder. 

“Maybe I’m just in that kind of mood.” 

With that, the swirling sadness abated for a while, ebbing like the tide and leaving room for the two of them to breathe. Keith was grateful for the respite as Lance crawled atop him and straddled his hips, smiling down at him with adoration in those gorgeous blue eyes. 

“Maybe I am too”, he said, and leaned forward to prove it. 

-

In their last few days on earth together, emotions were high. 

Allura left them. She had a higher purpose, she said, and though Lance had long since given his heart to Keith, he was noticeably more distraught than the others by her sacrifice. Her final gift to him was a kiss that left Keith feeling a twinge of envy, as she pulled away and wiped the tears on Lance’s cheeks to reveal brilliant, blue Altean markings on his face. 

Without further explanation, she was gone - forever - and Keith was left to hold Lance through the pain of losing his dear friend and first love _and_ being on the precipice of saying a long goodbye to the love of his life just a few days later. 

It was a lot to shoulder. 

“How long will you be gone? At a time, I mean.” Lance wondered, curled up on their shared bed in nothing but an oversized blue blanket. It hung off his shoulders, tumbling over his neck and arms like a waterfall and making him look vulnerable and small. Keith’s chest ached at the sight. 

“I can’t say for sure,” Keith told him, as honest a reply as he could offer. “You know I won’t be gone any longer than I have to.”

“You will, though,” Lance snapped back. Keith was stunned into silence for a moment, eyes finally narrowing as he waited for Lance to explain himself. 

“What? What do you mean I w—”

“I mean you’ll do what you always do,” Lance said sourly. “You’ll find some big, important… Thing. Something that can’t wait. Something that needs doing right now, that is so important that you won’t be able to think about anything else.” He burrowed deeper into the blanket. “About _anybody_ else.” 

The ache in Keith’s chest ramped up, like a pressure building to its peak. He tried to swallow it away. 

“Is _that_ what you… Lance, I won’t—”

“You _will!”_ Lance said sharply. “You’re a good leader. You’re like a born soldier and now you’re making the Blade into this… humanitarian thing, and I’m… I’m never gonna see you anymore.” Lance buried his face in the blanket for a moment, the sound of deep breaths audible through the fabric. “You’re gonna go off on amazing missions across the universe and probably end up abandoning me on a damned rock of a planet somewhere, and I can’t even blame you. No one ever…” He raised his face to look at Keith, tear tracks leaving angry red streaks on either side. “Nobody ever stays with me long.” 

The pain in Keith’s chest finally fractured. He all but dropped to his knees, scrambling to the side of the bed so that he could look Lance in the eye. 

“Lance, look at me,” he asked, reaching for his boyfriend’s face. He cupped Lance’s damp cheek in his palm, thumbing at a tear as it fell. The energy that radiated from Lance was dark, like the most frightening and unknown depths of the ocean. 

Keith was determined to navigate those waters - to bring Lance back to more peaceful shores. 

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said, making sure he had Lance’s attention. Only when he was certain those watery blue eyes were fully focused on his own did Keith continue. “I mean, yes. I’m leaving. I won’t physically be with you. But, Lance… Do you remember when we were doing the Voltron thing? No matter what was going on, I was always thinking about something else. Finding Shiro, getting back to the Blade, getting back to Earth - something else was always driving me. Those things are all taken care of now. So, now, I’ve just got one priority when I’m out there doing my mission work with the Blade.” 

“Peace?” Lance ventured, his voice barely above a shaky exhale. Keith nodded. 

“Peace,” he repeated. “And do you know what peace means to me?” 

Lance shook his head. Keith climbed up onto the bed beside him. 

“For me, peace is knowing where my family is. It’s knowing where the people I love are and that they’re safe. Peace is waking up and going to sleep at night knowing that whenever I see the person I love most next, they’re going to be right where I left them, safe, and whole, and ready for me to hold them again.” He wrapped an arm around Lance’s waist, letting Lance crawl into his lap - blanket and all. “For me, peace is this. You and me. Wherever you are in the universe, just know that I’ll always come home to you. And we can have this.”

Keith pulled Lance close to his chest. They were silent for a long moment. Lance continued to sniffle as he labored to steady his breathing, but after a little while, the waves of deep sadness that had rolled from his shoulders began to give way to a lighter shade of blue. Something almost soothing. 

Finally, he looked up at Keith, bumping the tip of his nose against his boyfriend’s. 

“You’ll come back to me?” he asked. The little markings just below his eyes flickered weakly. Keith wanted nothing more than to see them glow. 

“Always,” he promised. He captured Lance’s mouth in a kiss. It was full of promise, of unspoken fear and reassurance at once. Gathering Lance against him, Keith breathed as much love into him as he could, knowing both of them would need it in the days and weeks ahead. 

In the dim light of their final evening together, Lance’s markings illuminated their tiny shared space. 


	6. Indigo

The first days apart feel more like months for Lance. 

He knows it won’t be forever. Keith promised him as much. Despite everything in him that wants to worry about the many danger that he knows are still lurking all over the universe - known and unknown - he trusts Keith. He believes that they won’t be apart for long. 

His mind has a hard time convincing his heart, though. 

In those first days, Lance feels numb. He takes up residence in a new home, a lovely little farmhouse on a property where all of his relatives can stay close by. His family have homes within walking distance. The Alteans are his neighbors, and he has mission work of his own to do. Coran sees to it that Lance is kept busy, so the first few days just feel like an extension of everything Lance has already done with Voltron. 

More work. More outreach. More watching over those who now look to him as a role model. 

Behind the closed doors of his new home, though, he lets the facade of a leader and idol slip. Alone in a home that he should be settling into with Keith, he finally feels the weight of his loneliness settle on his shoulders about a week after Keith leaves. It creeps into his consciousness, inky and dark and threatening to poison the pleasant warmth he keeps there when he thinks of how happy they will be when this first separation is over. 

If they can just get through this, he’ll be fine. He’ll get used to it. It won’t be so bad, after a while. 

He keeps telling himself that as the days pass. 

It wouldn’t be so bad if everyone else wasn’t so busy and he wasn’t still raw from losing Allura and the disbanding of team Voltron. Everything about his identity for the last few years has changed in just a matter of days, and the horizon of his future feels like nothing but a gathering storm. Without Keith there to lean on through the uncertainty, he feels alone in the rain. 

\--

In Keith’s absence, Lance spends more time than he should walking alone at night, outdoors under the vast expanse of space above him. He reaches upward, imagining that if he just reaches far enough, he could cross the inky blackness that separates them and touch Keith’s face. It’s a silly thought, but it gets him through the night when the loneliness is at its worst. 

Beside him, the bed that they should be sharing seems far too big. The crisp, white sheets wear a pale blue glow in the muted light that filters through the windows of the little farmhouse. The bedroom doesn’t feel like home yet; the bed doesn’t even feel like his. The sheets are cold, even while he does his best to sleep in them because when he wakes in the night and reaches for Keith, he isn’t there. 

Lance wonders almost hourly what Keith is doing. Where he is, or what he must be experiencing. It’s strange and stressful, knowing Keith is somewhere so unfathomably far from him, yet never far from his mind. 

Stranger still is the way that Lance wishes his body would hang onto the proof of Keith’s claim on him despite the march of time. Bruises left behind by fingers digging into skin and teeth biting down on shoulders as Keith made love to him on their final night together are beginning to fade. Lance runs fingers over them, willing them to stay longer. They’ve gone a dusty shade of violet-blue, now, with some of them having disappeared almost entirely. 

He decides one of his first priorities when he has Keith in his arms again will be reinstating those marks, right where they belong. 

It’s nearly two weeks after Keith leaves that Lance realizes he hasn’t even touched himself since his boyfriend answered the call of duty. He tries to summon the energy, the right frame of mind to do so, for the release and the relief from stress he hopes it will bring. Instead, he only manages to summon to mind images of Keith, backing him against their rain-soaked window and bringing him to the brink of bliss, whispering love into his ear as he finally tumbles over the edge. 

Only, when Lance opens his eyes, Keith isn’t there to kiss his nose or whisper soft praises to him. 

He falls asleep alone again, clutching a tear-stained pillow. 

—

There is no time frame for Keith’s mission, so when Lance wakes up the next morning, it is with the lingering dread that has been heavy in his chest for days. A sharp knock at his door rouses him from his blankets earlier than he wants to be formally woken, but it’s just as well. The bed really isn’t that comfortable, anyway. 

“Delivery,” an unfamiliar man says, handing Lance a package. He's dressed in clothing that reminds Lance of earthly postal workers, but the package is an oddly-wrapped brown thing with no labeling. Lance holds it out away from himself, eyeing it cautiously. 

“Hold up. I didn’t order anything. I don’t even know how I _would_ order anything. There’s no address here, or… Where is this even _from?”_

“Galaxy Garrison,” he says impatiently. “Says on the sheet here it’s from a ‘K. Holt.”

Lance thinks for a moment, brain still doing its morning stretches. Finally, the name clicks. “Pidge ?”

The delivery man shakes his head. “I don’t know, man. This is just my job. Anyway, sign here, please.” He thrusts a data pad in Lance’s direction. Lance hesitates a moment more, looking down at the box with waning suspicion before finally signing. 

—

It takes Lance only a moment to make it inside and rip the packaging open to see what Pidge could have seen fit to send him. Surely it must be something amazing if she went out of her way to figure out how mailing him something out here even worked. 

Inside the box is a small device wrapped in a soft, suede-like material for safekeeping. With the material laid aside, Lance examines it, turning it over gingerly in his hands. It looks almost like a walkie-talkie, like the kind he played with as a child. This one is sleeker, though, with a screen that looks like it’s made for viewing things on. Lance punches the little button on top, waiting for something to happen. 

All he hears is static. 

Sighing, he sets the little device down. 

_ Oh. A note _ . 

He picks up the handwritten letter tucked inside the package and unfolds it. 

_ ‘I figured you might be missing your man by now. This should reach the Blade’s ship. I’ve included a list of channels to try. Just let them know who you are and they’ll put you through.  _

_ You owe me.  _

_ -Pidge’ _

Beneath the untidy scrawl is a list of numbers, presumably channels for him to try. Lance stares at the device, his hands shaking anxiously. When did the idea of just being able to talk to Keith become so exhilarating that he could hardly think straight? He isn’t sure, but he knows he’ll have to do something extra special for Pidge if this works. 

Forgoing breakfast, a shower, or anything else he might otherwise do, Lance grabs the sheet of paper and the little communicator and heads back to his bed to try his. 

—

It takes three tries. 

The first brings only static. 

The second brings strange sounds that he does not recognize. Without his paladin helmet, Lance can’t understand alien languages, so he wonders if perhaps he has accidentally made contact with someone else’s ship. Discouraged, he opts to try once more before taking a break. 

The third time is the charm. He tunes the communicator to the channel and waits for a connection. Finally, a connection is indicated on the screen and a voice that brings a lump to his throat drifts out from the device’s speaker. 

“You’ve reached the Blade of Marmora outreach branch. This is Keith. It looks like you’re not in our sector. Can you give us your name and location?”

It takes far too long for Lance’s voice to function. Keith sounds so focused; Lance suddenly feels guilty for bothering him while he’s out on a mission - guilty for missing him so much. Still, he finds his voice to keep from wasting his boyfriend’s time entirely. 

“Keith? Keith, it’s me. It’s Lance.”

There is a beat of silence across the sound waves, and Lance panics for the whole of it. His worries are only magnified when Keith all but dissolves on the other end of the line. 

“Lance? Lance! What are - are you okay? How did you contact us? Where are you?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Lance chokes, tears beginning to fall against his will. “Pidge sent me this thing so I could call you. I didn’t know I would be interrupting you or anything. I’m sorry, I didn’t—”

“You’re not interrupting anything,” Keith cuts in. “Lance, I’m so happy to hear from you, I’m just. God, I was so worried when I heard your voice. I’m sorry. I thought something happened.” His voice is shaking, and Lance realizes he’s probably crying now, too. “You just scared me, okay? That’s all. I’m not upset.”

“Still sorry,” Lance says, and he laughs this time. It’s a weight off his chest, one he hadn’t even realized was so heavy until it’s floating away and he can breathe again. “God, I’m sorry. I just… It feels so good to talk to you.”

“Likewise,” Keith agrees, his voice steadying - softening. “Listen, though. This is our ship’s channel. I have a private communicator that I carry with me. Why don’t I give you that channel?” 

“Ooh, gonna give me your number pretty boy?” Lance teases, tears still damp on his face and grin wide enough that he’s sure Keith can hear it across the vast distance between them. Keith huffs a laugh. 

“Only if you promise to use it.” 

—

The rest of their time apart isn’t so bad. 

The bed is still too large. The sheets are still cold and the whole house still doesn’t quite feel like home yet. But it’s easier, knowing that when things get lonely, Lance has a link to Keith right in his pocket. 

The distance doesn’t seem so vast, anymore. At night, Lance stays inside, his face illuminated by the blue-violet light from the communicator as he and Keith figure out together how to transmit video across the little screens. They talk for hours, the way they might if Keith were actually there to hold Lance in his arms. More than once, Lance falls asleep with the communicator in his hand. 

It’s as close as he can be to Keith for the moment.

When Keith gets the word that he will be heading home soon, he lets Lance know right away. Neither can wait to be beside the other again, but there is a part of Lance that will miss the stolen moments they’ve carved out during this time apart, with Keith hiding in his quarters on the Blade’s ship to whisper sweet, heated words to Lance and promises of passion when he returns to him. Of course, no amount of long-distance love will ever compare to the feeling of Keith’s arms around him. 

As twilight paints the sky a brilliant shade of indigo once more, Lance marvels at just how much he’s grown to love that feeling - and just how much he’s looking forward to having it, once more. 


	7. Violet

The night before Keith was scheduled to touch down, Lance could hardly sleep. 

He didn’t call Keith that evening. He figured his boyfriend probably needed his rest for the journey home. But he himself was wide awake, watching the skies anxiously as the light became purple and soft, preparing for the last night he would have to spend alone for a while. 

It was easy to come up with things to keep himself busy. There was laundry to do. Their bedclothes would be fresh and clean and comfortable for Keith to crawl into beside him that night. He could cook. Keith always appreciated something not made from alien goop and Lance was one hell of a cook when he tried to be. 

Chopping vegetables and fluffing blankets, he planned the next day down to every last detail, ensuring everything would be perfect. The only thing he forgot to do was tuck himself into bed for the night, falling asleep on the couch instead. 

He awoke to the sound of whirring the next morning as it grew louder outside. 

With a few startled blinks, he realized that he’d missed his chance to look like anything more than a person who had slept passed out on their couch. His clothes from the day before would just have to do. He bolted down the short hallway of the little house to brush his teeth, still wiping at his mouth with the back of his sleeve as he dashed out the door. 

The sun outside was blinding to his sleep-weary eyes. The skies were a soft, pale blue, still crowned with the fluffy, pink clouds of morning. It gave the horizon a lilac cast that made the ship landing a few hundred yards away seem to glow. Though, perhaps that was just Lance’s excitement to see the person he knew was inside. 

When the hatch finally opened to let the ramp down, Lance’s heart leapt in his chest. 

Apparently, he wasn’t the only one anxious for this reunion. 

Before the ramp had even made contact with the ground, Keith came bounding off of it. His feet hit the ground with a theatrical thud, giving him just a second of pause to steady himself before he looked up and locked eyes with Lance and tore his way across the open space between them. 

Lance didn’t consciously move toward him. It just sort of  _ happened. _ He threw his arms outward and suddenly Keith was there, picking him up and swinging him around in one fluid motion. Lance’s first thought was to kiss him, long and deep and with all the longing he had felt in every part of him since Keith had been gone. 

His next thought was to laugh. As it happened, the two occurred at roughly the same time. 

“Missed you so damned much,” he laughed against Keith’s mouth, still clinging to him as if Keith might disappear if he didn’t. Keith laughed as well, Lance’s favorite sound on that or any other planet. 

“You too, you menace,” he replied. 

They stood, wrapped up in one another for a while, lingering in the lawn of Lance’s little farmhouse. Keith pressed kisses to every inch of Lance’s face, while Lance let his hands wander over his boyfriend’s shoulders, his arms and back, into his hair and anywhere else they wanted to venture. 

It was their moment, and Lance refused to be robbed of even a second of it. 

When Keith finally tore his attention away from Lance’s face long enough to let the rest of his crew know what their plans would be for the foreseeable future, he did so with Lance’s hand in his. Lance followed him gladly, watching him like a lovestruck teenager, fully aware of how ridiculous he probably looked. 

He couldn’t have cared less. Keith’s hand was warm and soft and  _ real  _ in his. That was all that mattered. 

—

“Are you hungry?” Lance asked when they finally made it inside. Keith took a few minutes to wander around the house, still obviously overwhelmed with the idea of having a home to come back to. 

A home with Lance. 

That idea made Lance warm all the way to the tips of his ears as he gathered together the things he’d prepared for the big brunch spread he was planning. 

“Starving, actually,” Keith admitted. “But you don’t have to cook for me. God, Lance, I’m just so glad to be here with you. I’m…” Keith trailed off, looking around at the little house Lance had labored to organize and decorate while he was away - to prepare for them to settle in. He bit his lip and swallowed, looking back at Lance with emotion heavy in his voice. “I’m so glad to be home.”

Lance could see the honesty - the exhaustion, too - in those pretty violet eyes. He put down the spoon he’d been holding and made his way over to where Keith was standing, still holding a bowl full of bright, ripe berries. He smiled and pressed a kiss to Keith’s lips, let himself be pulled against Keith’s chest and held for a long moment and to simply relax. 

They had nowhere to be. No schedule to keep. 

Lance peeked up at Keith from where he had snuggled against him and offered him one of the berries, grinning when Keith dropped his mouth open and took it. 

“How about a snack for now,” Lance said, popping a berry into his own mouth, “and then we go to bed for a little bit. Then I’ll make us a big meal later.” 

“Lance, I haven’t seen you in weeks,” Keith grumbled, pushing Lance back enough that he could look him properly in the eye. “Why would I waste time napping right now when I could be spending it with you?” 

“Oh, I didn’t say we were going to  _ sleep, _ babe,” Lance teased. He popped another handful of berries in his mouth, delighting at the way they were undoubtedly reddening his lips. Keith seemed rather fixated on them, too. 

Lance licked them and grinned. “There are a few  _ other  _ things I can think of that might be fun to do in bed.” 

The next thing Lance knew, he was clutching his bowl full of berries tightly to his chest and laughing as Keith scooped him off his feet and hauled them both down the hall to where the bedroom sat. 

Brunch could wait. 

—

Keith all but tossed Lance onto the bed once they reached the bedroom. 

Lance yelped a laugh, swearing about getting berry stains on the sheets. Once Keith had discarded the first layer of his uniform and climbed atop him, though, all thoughts of the sheets were forgotten. 

Keith looked tired, Lance noted, but was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Looking down at Lance with those violet-blue eyes full of a long-denied hunger, he made Lance’s pulse quicken and his chest feel tight.

Lance lay his hands back, palm side up on either side of his head, a show of submission - an invitation. 

“Keith,” he said, soft and pleading. Keith nodded. 

“Just let me…” Keith trailed off. He stood to rid himself of his clothing, a less complicated process than it appeared to be. Lance tried to take notes for future endeavors, but his mind was fogging with the haze of lust that always seemed to cloud his vision when he and Keith were together like this. His breath stuttered as he watched all but Keith’s underwear fall from his body. 

“Now,” Keith said, looking Lance over. “Your turn.” 

He crawled up beside Lance and made quick work of freeing him from his shirt, undoing the drawstring that held Lance’s pants in place on his waist. As the clothes fell loose, Keith pushed them from Lance’s body and kissed every inch of skin he found along the way. 

_ “Keith,” _ Lance whined, growing impatient. Keith nipped at Lance’s hip, chiding him. 

“Hush. You’re the one who usually drags these things out. I’ve missed this and I’m gonna enjoy it.” Keith returned to his effort to drive Lance insane. 

He was excellent at it. 

Lance’s patience finally wore too thin for him to stay still. He propped himself up on his elbows to watch Keith work his mouth over his stomach, hips, and thighs - everywhere except where he really wanted it. 

“Baby,  _ c’mon,” _ he pouted, wiggling his hips impatiently. Keith took the waistband of Lance’s boxers between his teeth and tugged, eliciting a sharp inhale from him. When he released it and moved away again, Lance grumbled. “Are you gonna do this all day?”

“Maybe,” Keith grinned, far too pleased with himself. His smirk was too wide and bright and beautiful and Lance’s heart could hardly take the sight of it. 

He plucked a fat, ripe blueberry from the nearly-forgotten bowl beside him and smashed it against Keith’s mouth. 

“Lance!” Keith spat, licking away the remnants of the berry and casting Lance a half-hearted glare. Lance snorted and shoveled a handful of berries into his own mouth before tossing another at Keith, bursting into another fit of giggles when it hit him right on the nose. 

“Play games with me, and I’ll return the favor,” Lance grinned. He threw another berry, but this time Keith caught it in his mouth. Lance gave him an impressed smile, but then Keith was lunging for the bowl and retaliating. 

“Let’s see how you like it, huh?” 

For the next few minutes, there was a fit of laughter and limbs flying between them as they tossed fruit at one another, snacking and smiling between kisses. Lance had forgotten his effort to keep the new, white sheets clean; the thought of stains paled in comparison to the sweetness of the memories they were making. 

That sweetness lingered long after the bowl was empty, on their lips and in their mouths as they abandoned their food fight to return to kissing and touching and remembering why they were in bed together in the first place. 

“Are we done playing games, now?” Keith asked, his voice low and rough and his lips stained dark from the juice of the fruit. Lance nodded from where he was pinned on the bed beneath him. 

“I am if you are,” he said, embarrassed by how breathless he already was. Keith didn’t seem to mind. 

“Sounds like a deal,” he grinned, and finally -  _ finally  _ \- freed Lance from the confines of his boxers. He peeled his own tight-fitting boxer briefs off next, then joined Lance back on the bed with a sigh as they were finally laid entirely bare against one another. 

“God, I’ve missed you,” Keith hissed, rocking his hips forward as his length was nestled in the cleft of Lance’s ass. Lance reached behind him to thread fingers through Keith’s hair, twisting and pulling and reveling in the way he groaned. 

“Missed you more, baby,” Lance said. He loved letting pet names and other sweetness slide easily from his lips when they were like this. It made it a little more likely that Keith would do the same. Plus, it never ceased to make Keith’s breath hitch in the most gorgeous way. 

This time was no exception. 

“Was tryin’ to take my time with you,” Keith breathed across his shoulder before biting down, nipping and sucking dark marks across Lance’s neck and shoulders wherever he could reach. Lance couldn’t wait to see them, to  _ feel  _ them later. Keith growled against his skin. “Wanted to. But I don’t know if I can right now.” 

The honesty in Keith’s voice was startling. It shook Lance from the near-trance he’d been in and he rolled in Keith’s arms to face him. Tracing a hand down Keith’s face, he cupped his chin, bringing their mouths together again and humming with delight at the lingering sweetness of the berries still present on his tongue. 

“You don’t have to,” he said between kisses. He curled one hand in Keith’s hair again, the other still cupping his face and keeping him close enough to taste. “I don’t need time, right now. We can take our time later. Just need you.” 

That seemed to be all the urging Keith needed. He flipped them so that Lance was flat on his back again, moving his hands above his head once more. Lance whined through his nose as he let himself be moved, handled however Keith saw fit. Just as bliss began to sweep him from the moment, though, Keith sat up sharply and stared down at him, looking concerned. 

“Did… Do we have any—”

“There,” Lance said, tossing a hand toward a small bedside table in a clumsy gesture. Keith nodded, rolling off the bed and onto his feet quickly. He was back and moving between Lance’s legs before Lance could even think to laugh at his eagerness. 

It wasn’t like Keith was the only one dying for it. 

_ “Please,  _ Keith,” Lance begged for what felt like the eighty-third time that day, mouth watering at the sight of Keith’s hardness being slicked with lube. Keith slicked his hand with extra and slid his fingers between Lance’s legs, pulling gasps from Lance in the process. “Baby, please, please,  _ please…” _

“Just relax,” Keith said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Give me a minute to make sure you’re ready.” 

Lance willed his body to comply, but it was hard to simply lie there and relax with Keith working him over the way he was. In a matter of seconds, Lance was riding back onto those slicked fingers and whining for more, reaching out to grab hold of Keith and cling to whatever part of him he could reach. 

“Keith, ‘m ready, baby, please, _ c’mon,” _ he babbled, legs splayed wide and burning face buried in Keith’s shoulder. Keith slowly withdrew his fingers and moved Lance by his hips, until he could slide into him from a more comfortable angle. 

When he finally did, Lance felt as though he could see the entirety of the stars, even in broad daylight. 

“Keith, baby,  _ shit—” _

“You okay?” Keith asked. His movements were tight, obviously restrained. Lance made a show of nodding, his every action begging for Keith to unleash himself. 

Finally, he obliged. 

“Missed you,” he whispered between sharp, almost brutal thrusts. Lance looped arms around his neck and held on, whimpering with overwhelming pleasure. Keith dug fingers into the plush swell of Lance’s ass and held him close, deepening the angle and sending Lance reeling even further with every movement of his hips. 

“Didn’t think I would,” Keith continued. “Never had a home to come back to, never had something like you before, _fuck,_ _Lance, baby,_ missed you so much.” He rambled as his hips found a steady rhythm. Lance pressed kisses to the skin he could reach, easy and open-mouthed, whispering praises and encouragement. 

When he looked up at Keith’s face, his eyes were screwed shut, like he was willing himself not to cry. 

“Keith,” he managed. Keith’s eyes flew open, his movements faltering for a moment. 

“Look at me,” Lance asked. He reached for Keith’s face, kissing him soundly and breathing as much love into him as he could manage. Keith pushed up on shaky arms and looked down at Lance, eyes dark and full of lust and adoration in equal measure. 

“You’re gorgeous,” he whispered, moving inside Lance again. Lance lifted his hips to meet Keith move for move, sighing. 

“I’m yours.” 

That seemed to bring Keith near to his limit. One arm gave out as he leaned down to capture Lance’s mouth again, his hips snapping with near-reckless abandon. When he came, it was with a blissful shout of Lance’s name, like he was calling out his lover’s praises to the whole of the planet around them. 

Distantly, Lance hoped at least a few of the neighbors might have heard him. 

Before Keith had even had time to recover properly from his own climax, he slid from between Lance’s legs and moved to bend over him again, taking his aching hardness into his mouth. Lance’s fingers flew to tangle in his hair as Keith took Lance almost entirely in a single swallow, and with a few more Lance was losing himself to his own release. 

The moments that followed were like something from a dream, as Lance drifted in and out of consciousness, sated by sex and sweet words and the presence of his boyfriend. When he awoke properly, it was over an hour later, and they were both sprawled out across a thoroughly-stained set of white sheets. 

“Well, those will need to be replaced,” he sighed. Beside him, Keith laughed his way back into consciousness. 

“That’s really what you’re thinking about right now?” he asked. Lance frowned. 

“You’re not the one who spent all the time washing them yesterday, sir.” 

Seemingly charmed by Lance’s sour face, Keith sighed and gathered him up close, rolling them both over and kissing Lance once and then twice more, until he wasn’t frowning any longer. 

“You’re right. You made everything perfect. Just for me. For me to come  _ home  _ to.” The emphasis on the word wasn’t lost on Lance. He beamed when Keith said it, bumping his nose against his boyfriend’s and smiling. 

“You bet your ass I did. Which reminds me…” He sat up, stretching, enjoying the dull aches that reminded him of what they had been up to just an hour before. “How about some brunch?”

Still lying on the bed, looking up at Lance with stained lips and messy hair and an expression that screamed ‘luckiest man alive’, Keith smiled wider than Lance could ever remember. 

“Sounds great.” 

—

Brunch was a leisurely affair, with at least a few jokes about Lance cooking in nothing but an apron and high heels next time and one more (small) food fight. 

When they’d finished, Keith followed Lance - fully clothed - out into the yard to survey the property. 

Lance showed off the farm, the gardens, and gleefully showed Keith the bushes and brambles where the berries they’d been sharing that morning had come from. They picked a few more handfuls and shared them as they made their way to the wide, open fields that lay beyond the farmlands. 

“So, it’s just… It’s all open out here?” Keith asked, looking around at the wide expanse of wildflowers and soft, lush green grasses. Lance shrugged. 

“For now,” he said, flopping down unceremoniously atop a bed of soft, little purple flowers. “I thought maybe one day, we could build onto it. Especially if like…” He felt his face go hot. 

Keith stooped to kneel beside him, a smile beginning to play at his features. 

“If what?”

“I dunno. Maybe one day we could get married or something. You could stop running all over the universe and stay home for a while. We could have a family. It's just a thought.” Lance hadn’t realized he was saying all of this to the ground until Keith cupped his chin and turned it upward again to meet his eyes. 

“I like that thought,” he said, and moved to his knees fully so that he could press a kiss to Lance’s lips. 

It was soft, like the flowers beneath them and the breeze above them, warm like the sun on their shoulders. 

And then it was over, as Keith lost his balance and they toppled over one another, Keith landing atop Lance and both of them laughing, two lovestruck idiots left holding one another in a field of wildflowers as the sun began to wane. 

—

That evening was the best that Lance could remember. 

Beside their bed sat a cup full of hand-gathered lavender, its soft and soothing scent a backdrop for sleep that was already on the horizon. Lance watched from his seat on their soon-to-be-shared bed as Keith spoke with his Blade teammates via his communicator, before signing off and tucking it away where it wouldn’t bother them for the night. 

“So? Big important news or anything?” he asked. Keith shook his head, climbing onto the bed beside him. 

“Just one thing. I think we’ve decided we’re gonna schedule these trips down to three or four times a year, max. The rest of the time, we can send smaller response teams and do outreach from stationary locations.” 

Lance couldn’t help the hopeful smile that spread across his face. 

“Like here?”

Keith nodded, smiling to outshine Lance’s. “Like here.” 

Lance launched himself at his boyfriend, dragging Keith beneath the blankets and pressing a sloppy kiss to the side of his face. Keith laughed aloud, the sound musical in the relative quiet of their cozy, little bedroom. 

“And the rest of the time, when I do have to be gone?” he said, lying back onto an overstuffed pillow. He pulled Lance toward him, letting him lay his head on his chest. “How about you come with me?” 

Lance popped right back up, looking back at Keith with wide eyes. 

“Seriously? Babe, that’s… I would love to, don’t get me wrong, but. You don’t have to drag me along just because I was a big baby while you were gone this time.”

_ “You _ were?” Keith chuckled, pulling Lance back down to hold him close. “You should have seen me. I’m pretty sure the girls are never gonna speak to me again after the way I acted while we were apart.” 

Something about that idea made Lance preen. He cuddled into Keith’s side and sighed, all at once hoping to soothe his boyfriend’s memory of loneliness and happy that he hadn’t been the only one lost without his other half. 

“Guess we really do make a good team, huh, Red Ranger?” 

Keith laughed through his nose, his breathing already beginning to take on the slow, even tempo of sleep. Looking down at where Lance lay on his chest, he nodded. 

“Always have been, Blue. Always will be.” 

They drifted off to sleep that way. Keith’s heartbeat and the sound of crickets were Lance’s lullaby for the evening, and never had he heard any song that sounded so sweet. He lost himself to thoughts of a future with the man holding him, to thoughts of how they had somehow come full circle to this moment. 

Despite every change life had thrown at them, they were still exactly who they had always been - and still so very much in love. They were a red life and a blue one, forever tied, lovingly linked. 

In the light of the moon through the window, the blankets that covered the two of them were a soft shade of violet. 


End file.
